Ephesians 4:14-That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting...

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Calvinist?

Am I a Calvinist?

It is a shock-word to most denominations. I was raised adamantly free-will. Now I have to come to terms with (what I think is a) balanced view.

First, to all you good (moderate) "Arminian", and to all you good (moderate) "Calvinists" "Reformed Baptists"...and etc.

I have a firm belief in the Hypostatic Union. That is the biblical doctrine that states that Jesus (while here on earth) was at the same time both fully God, and fully man. This is confusing to some because the definition of "God", and the definition of "man" are fully opposite of each other

This is how I have settled in my own mind the question of how God can be fully supreme....for He is by His very nature...and how man can have at the same time a fully free will to make decisions for which he is fully responsible.

Supremacy entails full power over, and absolute control. Freedom entails perfectly uninfluenced decisions, and no set boundaries to limit. I am not fully able to understand the plans of Father God.......but couldn't that be?

I heard from someone that there is a movie about a man raised in a glass world. That is all he knew and all he wanted to know. What he didn't know was that his world was fake...all the people surrounding him were well-versed actors. He believed that he was acting from his own ideas, but all he thought and did was really dictated by the false world around him. He was the ultimate reality show to the world. One day his "world" breaks and he realizes how duped he was.Is this how God has set things? Are we just thinking we make decisions on our own and God lets us think it? Are we then still responsible for our actions?

Obviously God is all-knowing (omniscient)...Matt. 6:8- ...For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him9:5-But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?Acts 1:24- And they prayed and said, "You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all...15:8- Known to God from eternity are all His works....I Cor. 3:19- For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their [own] craftiness"; 20 and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." 21 Therefore let no one boast in men.

But man was created in God's imageGen. 1:26- Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His [own] image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.God's image in man is what the other creatures weren't given and don't have...namely, a soul, and with a soul goes the ability to exercise it. It is a shame that man had to use it wrongly...namely the first sin when Eve went against the only rule that God had set, and Adam ate after her. This gave them the knowledge of evil, and gave sin to all of us who were born after.

It also did not stop...for after the flood when God set up new guidelines for society, (Gen. 9:6 - Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.) He acknowledged man's free will.

Is it a hypostatic union? I don't know.

I am certainly NOT *hyper* anything. If it has to come down to a debate where only either man can be fully autonomous, or where God cam be fully supreme....I'm on God's side every time!